Why Can’t You Trust a Zestimate?
Have you heard of Zillow’s Zestimates? These are the values that Zillow assigns to your home.
I get asked about these values all the time by homeowners. They want to know whether they’re accurate, or, we suggest a list price for their home and they say, “But my Zestimate was…”
It’s important to understand that a Zestimate is just an algorithm Zillow created that comes up with a value for your home based on certain things happening in the marketplace. These values can be accurate, but not always. The type of property itself has a big impact on the Zestimate, so if you’re in a cookie cutter neighborhood with similar homes, the Zestimate will be more accurate.
However, if your home has unique features or a rural location, it’s hard for the algorithm to find apples-to-apples comparisons for your home. Also, any kind of structural upgrades or addition, like an outdoor kitchen or outdoor eating area, is something that impacts your home’s value that Zillow can’t take into account and will affect the accuracy of the Zestimate.
Here in Lake Norman, another big feature that Zillow can’t take into account is whether the property is waterfront or non-waterfront. Since waterfront homes tend to be on a slope and have walkout basements, they have a lot of additional value that the Zestimate won’t show.
That’s why we offer a Zestimate to sales price comparison. This means we look at all comparable properties and look at their Zestimates. We then provide you with a sales price comparison of those properties to your property. If you’d like to learn more about this comparison or you have any questions about your home’s value, give us a call or send us an email. We’d be happy to help.
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